Category Archives: General

April – June issue of Army AL&T magazine available online now By Steve Stark Fort Belvoir, VA, March 30, 2015—The U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center announced today that the April – June 2015 edition of Army AL&T magazine, themed “revamping acquisition and lessons learned” is now available online now. The facets of acquisition are many, and not all of them are within the Army’s control. Revamping acquisition—the theme of this issue—requires teamwork, professionalism, planning, precision and skill, and in many ways, the Army is doing what it can to accomplish this already. Consider the DODwide Better Buying Power. BBP, begun in 2010, is on version 3.0 and is having the […]

By Steve Stark FORT BELVOIR, Va. — Every edition of the U.S. Army Weapon Systems handbook since 1989 is now available in the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center’s new online archive. Since 1989, the U.S. Army Weapon Systems Handbook has served as a critical reference document that informs key stakeholders and audiences—primarily Congress—about high-priority Army acquisition programs in a comprehensive and understandable format, while presenting essential information reflecting the strategic context in which the Army operates. Each handbook provides critical information through visual and written program profiles that describe each system’s purpose, capability, program status, projected activities and interdependencies with other key systems. Many of the systems from the first […]

TRADOC CG GEN David G. Perkins discusses meaning and challenges of new Army Operating Concept A generation of Army officers grew up knowing exactly who the enemy was. Clear lines divided the world into enemy and ally, closed and open, communist and free. The United States made a move, and the Soviet Union countered; the Soviets designed one kind of weapon system, and the United States differentiated its systems accordingly, constantly seeking an edge—until the stalemate cracked and the Soviet bloc walls came down, taking with them the assumptions underpinning Army doctrine. A younger generation knew another, more amorphous enemy, harder to pin down on a map: terrorism. The dividing […]

By Rae Higgins, PEO CS&CSS Strategic Communication Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh has honored the Army’s Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS&CSS) with the Army Superior Unit Award for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service” during Fiscal Year 2013. PEO CS&CSS is headquartered in Warren, Mich., and is part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. More than 1,000 military and civilian employees assigned to five project offices and 25 product offices in Warren, Huntsville, Ala., Natick, Mass., and Fort Belvoir, Va., direct and coordinate the life cycle management of hundreds […]

Jan – March issue of Army AL&T magazine available online now By Steve Stark Fort Belvoir, VA, Jan 6, 2015—The U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center announced today that the January – March 2015 edition of Army AL&T magazine is now available online. The magazine, themed “Force 2025 and Beyond,” takes a deep look into the future of the Army out to 2040. It includes a frank conversation with U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Commanding General, Gen. David. G. Perkins, who spearheaded the new “U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World, 2020-2040.” Perkins suggests that defense planning for the future should focus less on exactly what capabilities the […]

A former Marine recruiter’s job with Starbucks is all about connection Chat with Starbucks’ Tom Tice awhile about his job, and you get the impression that the retired Marine is like a kid in a candy store when he goes to work each day. It’s not the caffeine talking; he is just that enthusiastic about what he does. Now he’s working to recruit some 10,000 former military personnel and active-duty military spouses to become Starbucks partners—the employees who provide what the company calls the Starbucks Experience. Tice started his career as a Marine in the late 1980s as a heavy machine gunner, then served duty in U.S. embassies before becoming […]

By Steve Stark FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Oct. 1, 2014)—The new edition of Army AL&T magazine is here and it’s all about people—the 38,000-strong Army Acquisition Workforce with special recognition for the 25th anniversary of the Army Acquisition Corps (AAC). The AAC, the core of the workforce, is made up of more than 12,000 men and women, experts in engineering, physics, robotics, mathematics, and other Acquisition fields, serve as an example of the professionalism and excellence of those who dedicate themselves to protect and support Soldiers across the globe. October 13, 1989, marks the date that then Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Carl E. Vuono approved the creation of the AAC, […]

Wounded warrior develops first-of-a-kind leg prosthesis By Mr. Steve Stark For most people, the 21st birthday is life-changing in one sense only, and a trivial one at that—they can purchase alcohol. For Edward Lychik, who turned 21 on Sept. 30, 2011, while serving as an Army combat engineer in Afghanistan, that birthday was profoundly life-changing in more ways than one. “We always like to say the combat engineers lead the way. We’re out there in the front, leading, driving five miles an hour and looking for bombs. Once I’d find something, we’d dig it up and go blow it up somewhere else,” he said. Lychik’s job as a specialist was […]

By Steve Stark FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Sept. 3, 2014) — As the result of budget constraints and the cost of print production, the Army has not printed its traditional coffee table-style Weapon Systems Handbook for the last two years. However, because of the publication’s popularity, the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC), which produces the handbook, created a Web-based version for this year. Like a lot of good print products—the phone book, the encyclopedia, to name just a few—the 2014 Weapon Systems Handbook is going digital. Readers can currently find information on 30 key systems at that website, and the program executive offices (PEOs) are adding new systems and updating […]

By T’Jae Gibson A team of researchers from the Army Research Laboratory and a number of universities are taking a physics-based approach to understanding traumatic brain injuries. They’re partnering with military medical experts like those at the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and others to understand the relationship between blast events – like explosions after an IED detonates – and brain injury. In this episode of Inside the Lab, ARL explores unique research approaches to understand how traumatic brain injuries occur, the challenges in detecting and diagnosing traumatic brain injuries and the obstacles Army and university researchers are attempting to overcome to find protection solutions to mitigate the effects […]

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